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OBSERVATIONS 



GROWTH OF THE MIND, 



By SAMPSON REED. 



FIFTH EDITION. 



BOSTON: 

CROSBY, NICHOLS, AND COMPANY, 

AND GEORGE PHINNEY. 

1859. 



If 






RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: 

STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY 

H. 0. HOUGHTON AND 003IPANY. 

d^^. a, IP'S 



T 



PEEFACE 

TO THE THIRD EDITION 



« The Growth of the Mind " was first pubHshed in 
the year 1826, and has now been through two editions 
in this country, and one or more in England. 

So far as an author duly feels in whose presence he 
stands, it can be no source of gratification to him to 
attract personal admiration or praise. He must re- 
gard himself as only a medium of truth from the one 
only Source of truth, and the forms in which he has 
been permitted to present it, as useful only so far as 
they are suitable vessels to contain and to communi- 
cate it. Truth itself — simple — unadorned — divine — 
is at the present day revealed, yet noticed and loved 
by few. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords is 
standing in the midst of us ; " but he hath no form 
nor comeliness ; and w^hen we shall see him, there is 
no beauty that we should desire him." The spiritual 
sense of the Sacred Scripture is opened ; " yet is it 
despised and rejected of men." 



IV PREFACE. 

The present age is cbaracterized bj the love of 
pleasing, as opposed to the love of truth. Fashion- 
able education, as it is often pursued, may almost be 
defined the cultivation of the art of pleasing. This is 
but too frequently the end for which so much labor is 
bestowed, by which a wardrobe of accomplishments is 
provided, which may be used as occasion requires. 
When the disposition to please takes the first place, 
it is obvious that truth must be sought only as it is 
subservient to this object. "How can ye believe, 
which receive honor one of another, and seek not the 
honor that cometh from God only." The love of 
pleasing is opposed to the love of truth, when a per- 
son desires to please others, in order that he may gain 
an influence over them, for the sake of promoting his 
own private ends or personal advantage. The love 
of pleasing is consistent with the love of truth, ^^v^hen 
a person desires to please, for the sake of promoting 
the good of, others, and the cause of truth itself. 

The New Church can discern, in almost every 
moral or rehgious writer of any acknowledged merit 
at the present day, some outbreakings of its own 
power ; while its principles are pressing into the nat- 
ural sciences, like so many gushing streams from an 
inexhaustible fountain above them. It is painful to 
see how little willingness there is to acknowledge the 
source of truth ; and how often a man seems to think 



PREFACE. V 

that it has answered its legitimate pui'pose, when he 
has bedecked his own person therewith, so as to com- 
mand the admiration of the multitude. 

The time is approaching when the claims of the 
New Church on the public attention may not be 
easily set aside. There is a problem to solve, to 
which those who reject the claims of this Church, 
will find it difficult to furnish a solution ; and the mis- 
representations and ignorance which have often pre- 
vailed in regard to it, will, before many years, be seen 
to be neither consistent with good manners nor good 
scholarship. The writings of Swedenborg are so 
pure in their character and influence, that the moral 
sense of the community will bear testimony that there 
is no wilful imposture ; and they are so perfect in 
their method and logic, that the rationality of the 
community will bear testimony that there is no in- 
sanity. The voice of these two witnesses cannot 
be silenced ; and the day is approaching, when the 
assertion that these writings are not of sufficient im- 
portance to command the attention of the public, will 
not be hazarded by any one, who either is a man of 
intelligence or seeks to be so esteemed. 

Still, the natural mind is ever backward to receive 
revealed truth, both from the character of this truth 
itself, and from the fact of its being revealed — from 
the character of the truth, because it is opposed to 



Yl PREFACE. 

the affections and principles of the natural mind, and 
calculated to reform and regenerate them — from the 
fact of its being revealed, because it leaves no place 
for the pride of discovery. " Whosoever will, let 
him take the water of life freely." The water of life 
is really as free as natural water ; and this we all 
know is the common gift of Providence to man and 
beast. But the condition is, that we should will to 
receive it — that we should acknowledge it to be the 
water of life, and endeavor to live from it — that we 
should seek to be purified and regenerated by its in- 
fluence. And alas ! how few are disposed to comply 
with these conditions, and how much do these find in 
themselves, which requires to be subdued and put 
away ! 

From these causes it is not to be expected that the 
truths of the spiritual sense of the Sacred Scripture, 
which the Lord has now revealed through his servant 
Emanuel Swedenborg, will find a very ready recep- 
tion. Transcendentalism* will rather be caressed. 
This is the product of man's own brain ; and when 
the human mind has been compelled to relax its grasp 
on sensualism, and the philosophy based on the senses, 
it may be expected first to take refuge here. Tran- 

* By Transcendentalism^ I mean such transcendeutalism as we 
now find, without any reference to its origin, or to the original 
meaning of the word. 



PREFACE. VU 

ism, even now, offers indications of an ap- 
proaching popularity in this country. It may be 
something gained, when the idolater no longer liter- 
ally worships the work of his - own hands ; even 
though he be in heart an idolater still, and worship 
the creations of his own imagination. So it may be 
a step forwards from sensualism to transcendentalism. 
It may be a necessary step in the progress of the 
human mind. But they still lie near each other — 
almost in contact. There is among insects a class 
called parasites. Their instinct leads them to deposit 
their eggs in the bodies of other insects, where, when 
the young is hatched, it has only to open its mouth 
and eat up its brother. It would seem to be in a way 
analogous to this, that Providence often permits one 
fidsity to be removed by another. Transcendentalism 
is the parasite of sensualism ; and when it shall have 
done its work, it will be found to be itself a worm, 
and the offspring of a worm. 

The Sacred Scripture is the only door through 
which we can enter into life, or receive living truths ; 
and all who would climb up any other way are thieves 
and robbers. Imagining themselves spiritual, it is 
possible that they should be even the lowest of the 
sensual — for they may only give to their sensuality 
wings, by which it may gain an apparent elevation, 
without any real change in its nature — superadding to 



Vlll PREFACE. 

its inherent properties that of monstrosity — becoming 
a winged serpent — the monstrous offspring of the in- 
fernal influence and a vain imagination. " On thy 
belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat, all the 
days of thy life," is with the serpent the law of its 
nature ; and any attempt to transcend this law must 
rather debase than elevate it. If it presume to raise 
itself into the air, and live on the nectar of flow- 
ers, its real quality will become the more apparent 
and disgusting — it will only defile what can afford it 
no nutriment, and all the birds of heaven will instinc- 
tively shun its company. Let every one know, there- 
fore, that his real faith in the Sacred Scripture and 
humble dependence upon it for life and light, are the 
only measure of his spirituality — that whatever seems 
to abound more than these, is nothing, or worse than 
nothing. Such " sons of the morning " may be ex- 
pected in these latter times — for the morning has 
indeed come, and, with the beginning of a brighter 
day than the world has yet seen, are awakened into 
life forms as monstrous as those of the dark ages. 

S. E. 
Boston, Feb. 28, 1838. 



OBSERVATIONS 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 



Nothing is a more common subject of 
remark than the changed condition of the 
world. There is a more extensive intercourse 
of thought, and a more powerful action of 
mind upon mind, than formerly. The good 
and the wise of all nations are brought nearer 
together, and begin to exert a power, which, 
though yet feeble as infancy, is felt throughout 
the globe. Public opinion, that helm which 
directs the progress of events by which the 
world is guided to its ultimate destination, 
has received a new direction. The mind has 
attained an upward and onward look, and is 
shaking off the errors and prejudices of the 
past. The structure of the feudal ages, the 
ornament of the desert, has been exposed to 



10 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

the light of heaven ; and continues to be gazed 
at for its ugliness, as it ceases to be admired 
for its antiquity. The world is deriving vigor, 
not from that which has gone by, but from 
that which is coming ; not from the unhealthy 
moisture of the evening, but from the name- 
less influences of the morning. The loud call 
on the past to instruct us, as it falls on the 
Kock of Ages, comes back in echo from the 
future. Both mankind, and the laws and prin- 
ciples by which they are governed^ seem about 
to be redeemed from slavery. The moral and 
intellectual character of man has undergone, 
and is undergoing, a change ; and as this 
is effected, it must change the aspect of all 
things, as when the position-point is altered 
from which a landscape is viewed. We ap- 
pear to be approaching an age which will be 
the silent pause of merely physical force before 
the powers of the mind ; the timid, subdued, 
awed condition of the brute, gazing on the 
erect and godlike form of man. 

These remarks with respect to the present 
era are believed to be just, when it is viewed 
on the bright side. They are not made by one 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 11 

who is insensible to its evils. Least of all, are 
they intended to countenance that feeling of 
self-admiration, which carries with it the seeds 
of premature disease and deformity ; for to be 
proud of the truth is to cease to possess it. 
Since the fall of man, nothing has been more 
difficult for him than to know his real con- 
dition, since every departure from divine order 
is attended with a loss of the knowledge of 
what it is. When our first parents left the 
garden of Eden, they took with them no means 
by which they might measure the depths of 
degradation to which they fell; no chart by 
which they might determine their moral longi- 
tude. 

Most of our knowledge implies relation and 
comparison. It is not difficult for one age, or 
one individual, to be compared with another ; 
but this determines only their relative condi- 
tion. The actual condition of man can be 
seen only from the relation in which he stands 
to his immutable Creator ; and this relation is 
discovered from the light of revelation, so far 
as, by conforming to the precepts of revelation, 
it is permitted to exist according to the laws 



12 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

of divine order. It is not sufficient that the 
letter of the Bible is in the world. This may- 
be, and still mankind continue in ignorance of 
themselves. It must be obeyed from the heart 
to the hand. The book must be eaten, and 
constitute the living flesh. When only the 
relative condition of the world is regarded, we 
are apt to exult over other ages and other men, 
as if we ourselves were a different order of 
beings, till at length we are enveloped in the 
very mists from which we are proud of being 
cleared. But when the relative state of the 
world is justly viewed from the real state of 
the individual, the scene is lighted from the 
point of the beholder with the chaste light of 
humility which never deceives ; it is not for- 
gotten that the way lies forward ; the cries of 
exultation cease to be heard in the march of 
progression, and the mind, in whatever it learns 
of the past and the present, finds food for im- 
provement, and not for vainglory. 

As all the changes which are taking place in 
the world originate in the mind, it might be 
naturally expected that nothing would change 
more than the mind itself, and whatever is 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 13 

connected with a description of it. While 
men have been speculating concerning their 
own powers, the sure but secret influence of 
revelation has been gradually changing the 
moral and intellectual character of the world, 
and the ground on which they were standing 
has passed from under them, almost while 
their words were in their mouths. The powers 
of the mind are most intimately connected 
with the subjects by which they are occupied. 
We cannot think of the will without feeling, 
of the understanding without thought, or of 
the imagination without something like po- 
etry. The mind is visible when it is active ; 
and as the subjects on which it is engaged are 
changed, the powers themselves present a dif- 
ferent aspect. New classifications arise, and 
new names are given. What was considered 
simple is thought to consist of distinct parts, 
till at length the philosopher hardly knows 
whether the African be of the same or a dif- 
ferent species ; and though the soul is thought 
to continue after death, angels are universally 
considered a distinct class of intellectual be- 
ings. Thus it is that there is nothing fixed in 



14 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

the philosophy of the mind. It is said to be 
a science which is not demonstrative ; and 
though now thought to be brought to a 
state of great perfection, another century, un- 
der' the providence of God, and nothing will 
be found in the structure which has cost so 
much labor, but the voice, " He is not here, 
but is risen." 

Is, then, everything that relates to the im- 
mortal part of man fleeting and evanescent, 
while the laws of physical nature remain unal- 
tered? Do things become changeable as we 
approach the immutable and the eternal ? 
Far otherwise. The laws of the mind are 
in themselves as fixed and perfect as the laws 
of matter ; but they are laws from which we 
have wandered. There is a philosophy of the 
mind, founded not on the aspect it presents in 
any part or in any period of the world, but 
on its immutable relations to its first cause ; a 
philosophy equally applicable to man, before 
or after he has passed the valley of the shad- 
ow of death ; not dependent on time or place, 
but immortal as its subject. The light of this 
philosophy has begun to beam faintly on the 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 15 

world, and mankind will yet see their own 
moral and intellectual nature by the light of 
revelation, as it shines through the moral and 
intellectual character it shall have itself cre- 
ated. It may be remarked, also, that the 
changes in the sciences and the arts are en- 
tirely the effect of revelation. To revelation 
it is to be ascribed, that the genius which has 
taught the laws of the heavenly bodies, and 
analyzed the material world, did not spend 
itself in drawing the bow or in throwing the 
lance, in the chase or in war; and that the 
vast powers of Handel did not burst forth in 
the wild notes of the war-song. It is the ten- 
dency of revelation to give a right direction to 
every power of every mind ; and when this is 
effected, inventions and discoveries will follow 
of course, all things assume a different aspect, 
and the world itself again becomes a paradise. 
It is the object of the following pages not to 
be influenced by views of a temporal or local 
nature, but to look at the mind as far as pos- 
sible in its essential revealed character, and 
beginning with its powers of acquiring and 
retaining truth, to trace summarily that devel- 



16 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

opment which is required, in order to render it 
truly useful and happy. 

It is said, the powers of acquiring' and retain- 
ing truths because truth is not retained without 
some continued exertion of the same powers 
by which it is acquired. There is the most 
intimate connection of the memory with the 
affections. This connection is obvious from 
many familiar expressions ; such as remember 
me to any one, by which is signified a desire to 
be borne in his or her affections — do not forget 
me, by which is meant do not cease to love me 
— get by heart, which means to commit to 
memory. It is also obvious from observation 
of our own minds; from the constant recur- 
rence of those subjects which we most love, 
and the extreme difficulty of detaching our 
own minds or the minds of others from a 
favorite pursuit. It is obvious from the power 
of attention on which the memory principally 
depends, which, if the subject have a place in 
our affections, requires no effort ; if it have not, 
the effort consists principally in giving it a real 
or an artificial hold of our feelings ; as it is pos- 
sible, if we do not love a subject, to attend to 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 17 

it, because it may add to our fame or our 
wealth. It is obvious from the never-fading 
freshness retained by the scenes of childhood, 
when the feelings are strong and vivid, through 
the later periods of life. As the old man looks 
back on the road of his pilgrimage, many years 
of active life lie unseen in the valley, as his eye 
rests on the rising ground of his younger days; 
presenting a beautiful illustration of the man- 
ner in which the human mind, when revelation 
shall have accomplished its work, shall no 
longer regard the scene of sin and misery be- 
hind, but having completed the circle, shall 
rest, as next to the present moment, on the 
golden age, the infancy of the world. 

The connection of the memory with the 
affections is also obvious from the association 
of ideas ; since the train of thoughts suggested 
by any scene or event in any individual, de- 
pends on his own peculiar and prevailing feel- 
ings ; as whatever enters into the animal sys- 
tem, wherever it may arise, seems first to be 
recognized as a part of the man, when it has 
found its way to the heart, and received from 
that its impulse. It is but a few years, (how 
2 



18 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

strange to tell !) since man discovered that the 
blood circulated through the human body. We 
have, perhaps, hardly learned the true nature of 
that intellectual circulation, which gives life 
and health to the human mind. The affections 
are to the soul, what the heart is to the body. 
They send forth their treasures with a vigor not 
less powerful, though not material, throughout 
the intellectual man, strengthening and nour- 
ishing ; and again receive those treasures to 
themselves, enlarged by the eifect of their own 
operation. 

Memory is the effect of learning, through 
whatever avenue it may have entered the mind. 
It is said, the effect^ because the man who has 
read a volume, and can perhaps tell you noth- 
ing of its contents, but simply express his own 
views on the same subject with more clearness 
and precision, may as truly be said to have 
remembered, as he that can repeat the very 
words. In the one case, the powers of the 
mind have received a new tone ; in the other, 
they are encumbered with a useless burden — 
in the one, they are made stronger; in the 
other, they are more oppressed with weight — 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 19 

in the one, the food is absorbed and becomes 
a part of the man ; in the other, it lies on the 
stomach in a state of crude indigestion. 

There is no power more various in different 
individuals, than the memory. This may*be 
ascribed to two reasons. First, this partakes 
of every power of the mind, since every mental 
exertion is a subject of memory, and may 
therefore be said to indicate all the difTerence 
that actually exists. Secondly, this power 
varies in its character as it has more or less to 
do with time. Simple divine truth has nothing 
to do with time. It is the same yesterday, 
to-day, and forever. The memory of this is 
simply the development of the mind. But we 
are so surrounded by facts of a local and tem- 
poral nature ; the place where, and the time 
when, make so great a part of what is presented 
to our consideration, that the attribute is mis- 
taken for the subject; and this power some- 
times appears to have exclusive reference to 
time, though, strictly speaking, it has no rela- 
tion to it. There is a power of growth in the 
spiritual man, and if in his progress we be able 
to mark, as in the grain of the oak, the number 



20 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

of the years, this is only a circumstance, and 
all that is gained would be as real if no such 
lines existed. The mind ought not to be lim- 
ited by the short period of its own duration in 
th^body, with a beginning and end comprising 
a few years ; it should be poised on its own 
immortality, and what is learned, should be 
learned with a view to that real adaptation of 
knowledge to the mind which results from the 
harmony of creation ; and whenever or wher- 
ever we exist, it will be useful to us. 

The memory has, in reality, nothing to do 
with time, any more than the eye has with 
space. As the latter learns by experience to 
measure the distance of objects, so the con- 
sciousness of the present existence of states of 
mind, is referred to particular periods of the 
past. But when the soul has entered on its 
eternal state, there is reason to believe that the 
past and the future will be swallowed up in 
the present ; that memory and anticipation 
will be lost in consciousness ; that everything 
of the past will be comprehended in the pres- 
ent, without any reference to time, and every- 
thing of the future will exist in the divine ef- 
fort of progression. 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 21 

What is time ? There is perhaps no question 
that would suggest such a variety of answers. 
It is represented to us from our infancy as pro- 
ducing such important changes, both in de- 
stroying some, and in healing the wounds it 
has inflicted on others, that people generally 
imagine, if not an actual person, it is at least a 
real existence. We begin with time in the 
Primer, and end with reasoning about the fore- 
knowledge of God. What is time ? The diffi- 
culty of answering the question, (and there are 
few questions more difficult,) arises principally 
from our having ascribed so many important 
effects to that which has no real existence. It 
is true that all things in the natural world are 
subject to change. But however these changes 
may be connected in our minds with time, it 
requires but a moment's reflection to see that 
time has no agency in them. They are the 
effects of chemical, or more properly, perhaps, 
of natural decompositions and reorganizations. 
Time, or rather our idea of it, so far from hav- 
•ing produced anything, is itself the effect of 
changes. There are certain operations in na- 
ture, which, depending on fixed laws, are in 



22 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

themselves perfectly regular; if all things were 
equally so, the question how long ? might 
never be asked. We should never speak of a 
late season, or of premature old age ; but every- 
thing passing on in an invariable order, all the 
idea of time that would remain with respect to 
any object, would be a sort of instinctive sense 
of its condition, its progress or decay. But 
most of the phenomena in the natural world 
are exceedingly irregular ; for though the same 
combination of causes would invariably pro- 
duce the same effect, the same combination 
very rarely occurs. Hence, in almost every 
change, and we are conversant with nothing 
but changes, we are assisted in ascertaining its 
nature and extent, by referring it to something 
in itself perfectly regular. We find this regu- 
larity in the apparent mdtions of the sun and 
moon. It is difficult to tell how much our idea 
of time is the effect of artificial means of keep- 
ing it, and what would be our feelings on the 
subject, if left to the simple operations of 
nature — but they would probably be little else- 
than a reference of all natural phenomena to 
that on which they principally depend, the 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 23 

relative situation of the sun and earth ; and the 
idea of an actual succession of moments would 
be, in a measure, resolved into that of cause 
and effect. 

, Eternity is to the mind what time is to na- 
ture. We attain a perception of it, by regard- 
ing all the operations in the world within us, 
as they exist in relation to their first cause ; for 
in doing this, they are seen to partake some- 
what of the nature of that Being on whom 
they depend. We make no approaches to a 
conception of it, by heaping day upon day or 
year upon year. This is merely an accumula- 
tion of time ; and we might as well attempt to 
convey an idea of mental greatness by that of 
actual space, as to communicate a conception 
of eternity by years or thousands of years. 
Mind and matter are not more distinct from 
each other than their properties ; and by an 
attempt to embrace all time, we are actually 
farther from an approach to eternity than when 
we confine ourselves to a single instant ; be- 
cause we merely collect the largest possible 
amount of natural changes, whereas that which 
is eternal approaches that which is immutable. 



24 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

This resembles the attempt to ascend to heaven 
by means of the tower of Babel, in which they 
were removed by their pride from that which 
they would have approached, precisely in pro- 
portion to their apparent progress. It is impos- 
sible to conceive of either time or space without 
matter. The reason is, they are the effect of 
matter ; and as it is by creating matter that 
they are produced, so it is by thinking of it 
that they are conceived of. It need not be 
said how exceedingly improper it is to apply 
the UvSual ideas of time and space to the 
Divine Being ; making him subject to that 
which he creates. 

Still our conceptions of time, of hours, days, 
or years, are among the most vivid we possess, 
and we neither wish nor find it easy to call 
them in question. We are satisfied with the 
fact, that time is indicated on the face of the 
watch, without seeking for it among the wheels 
and machinery. But what is the idea of a 
year ? Every natural change that comes under 
our observation leaves a corresponding impres- 
sion on the mind ; and the sum of the changes 
which come under a single revolution of the 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 25 

earth round the sun, conveys the impression of 
a year. Accordingly, we find that our idea of 
a year is continually changing, as the mind be- 
comes conversant with different objects, and is 
susceptible of different impressions ; and the 
days of the old man, as they draw near their 
close, seem to gather rapidity from their ap- 
proach to the other world. We have all ex- 
perienced the effect of pleasure and pain in 
accelerating and retarding the passing mo- 
ments ; and since our feelings are constantly 
changing, we have no reason to doubt that 
they constantly produce a similar effect, though 
it may not be often noticed. The divisions of 
time, then, however real they may seem to be, 
and however well they may serve the common 
purposes of conversation, cannot be supposed 
to convey the same impression to any two 
minds, nor to any one mind in different periods 
of its existence. Indeed, unless this were the 
fact, all artificial modes of keeping it, would be 
unnecessary. Time, then, is nothing real so 
far as it exists in our own minds. 

Nor do we find a nearer approach to reality 
by any analysis of nature. Everything, as was 



26 GROWTH OP THE MIND. 

said, is subject to change, and one change pre- 
pares the way for another; by which there is 
growth and decay. There are also motions of 
the bodies, both in nature and art, which in 
their operation observe fixed laws ; and here we 
end. The more we enter into an analysis of 
things, the farther are we from finding anything 
that answers to the distinctness and reality 
which are usually attached to a conception of 
time, and there is reason to believe that when 
this distinctness and reality are most deeply 
rooted, (whatever may be the theory,) they are 
uniformly attended with a practical belief of 
the actual motion of the sun, and are indeed 
the effect of it. Let us then continue to talk 
of time, as we talk of the rising and setting of 
the sun ; but let us think rather of those 
changes in theii* origin and effect, from which 
a sense of time is produced. This will caiTy 
us one degree nearer the actual condition of 
things ; it will admit us one step further into 
the temple of creation — no longer a temple 
created six thousand years ago, and deserted 
by him who formed it ; but a temple with the 
hand of the builder resting upon it, perpetually 



GROWTH OF THE MIXD. 27 

renewing, perpetually creating — and as we bow 
ourselves to worship the " I AM," " Him who 
liveth forever and ever, who created heaven and 
the things that are therein, and the earth and 
the things that are therein, and the sea and the 
things that are therein," we may hear in accents 
of divine love the voice that proclaims " that 
there shall be time no longer." 

It is not the living productions of nature, by 
which the strongest impression of time is pro- 
duced. The oak, over which may have passed 
a hundred years, seems to drive from our minds 
the impression of time, by the same power by 
w^hich it supports its own life, and resists every 
tendency to decay. It is that which is de- 
cayed, though it may have been the offspring 
of an hour ; it is the ruined castle mouldering 
into dust ; still more, if the contrast be strength- 
ened by its being covered with the living pro- 
ductions of nature ; it is the half consumed 
remains of some animal once strong and vig- 
orous, the discoveries of the undertaker, or the 
filthy relics of the catacomb, by which the 
strongest impression of time is conveyed. So 
it is with the possessions of the mind. It is 



28 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

that which is not used, which seems farthest 
in the memory, and which is held by the most 
doubtful tenure; that which is suffered to 
waste and decay because it wants the life of 
our own affections ; that which we are about 
to lose, because it does not properly belong to 
us : whereas that truth, which is applied to the 
use and service of mankind, acquires a higher 
polish the more it is thus employed, like the 
angels of heaven, who forever approximate to 
a state of perfect youth, beauty, and innocence. 
It is not a useless task, then, to remove from 
our minds the usual ideas of time, and culti- 
vate a memory of things. It is to leave the 
mind in the healthy, vigorous, and active pos- 
session of all its attainments, and exercise of 
all its powers ; it is to remove from it, that only 
which contains the seeds of decay and putre- 
faction ; to separate the living from the dead; 
to take from it the veil by which it would 
avoid the direct presence of Jehovah, and pre- 
serve its own possessions without using them. 
Truth, all truth is practical. It is impossi- 
ble, from its nature and origin, that it should 
be otherwise. Whether its effect be directly 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 29 

to change the conduct, or it simply leave an 
impression on the heart, it is in the strictest 
sense practical. It should rather be our desire 
to use what we learn, than to remember it. 
If we desire to use it, we shall remember it 
of course ; if we wish merely to remember, it 
is possible we may never use it. It is the 
tendency of all truth to effect some object. 
If we look at this object, it will form a dis- 
tinct and permanent image on the mind ; if 
we look merely at the truth, it will vanish 
away, like rays of light falling into vacancy. 

Keeping in view what has been said on the 
subject of time, then, the mind is presented to 
us, as not merely active in the acquirement 
of tTuth, bat active in its possession. The 
memory is the fire of the vestal virgins, send- 
ing forth perpetual light ; not the grave which 
preserves simply because annihilation is im- 
possible. The reservoir of knowledge should 
be seated in the affections, sending forth its 
influence throughout the mind, and terminat- 
ing in word and deed, if I may be allowed 
the expression, merely because its channels 
and outlets are situated below the watermark. 



30 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

There prevails a most erroneous sentiment, 
that the mind is originally vacant, and requires 
only to be filled up ; and there is reason to 
believe, that this opinion is most intimately 
connected with false conceptions of time. 
The mind is originally a most delicate germ, 
whose husk is the body ; planted in this 
world, that the light and heat of heaven may 
fall upon it with a gentle radiance, and call 
forth its energies. The process of learning 
is not by synthesis or analysis. It is the 
most perfect illustration of both. As sub- 
jects are presented to the operation of the 
mind, they are decomposed and reorganized 
in a manner peculiar to itself, and not easily 
explained. 

Another object of the preceding remarks 
upon time is, that we may be impressed 
with the immediate presence and agency of 
God, without which a correct understanding 
of mind or matter can never be attained ; 
that we may be able to read on every pow- 
er of the mind, and on every particle of 
matter, the language of our Lord, " My 
Father worketh hitherto, and I work." We 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 31 

usually put the Divine Being to an immense 
distance, by supposing that the world was 
created many years ago, and subject to cer- 
tain laws, by which it has since been gov- 
erned. We find ourselves capable of con- 
structing machines, which move on without 
our assistance, and imagine that the world 
was constructed in the same way. We 
forget that the motions of our machines de- 
pend on the uniform operation of what we 
call the laws of nature ; and that there can 
be nothing beyond, on which these depend, 
unless it be the agency of that Being from 
whom they exist. The pendulum of the 
clock continues to move from the uniform 
operation of gravitation. It is no explana- 
tion, to say that it is a law of our machi- 
nery that the pendulum should move. We 
simply place things in a situation to be 
acted upon by an all-pervading power ; but 
what all-pervading power is there by which 
gravitation is itself produced, unless it be 
the power of God ? 

The tendency of bodies to the earth, is 
something with which from our childhood 



32 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

we have been so familiar ; something which 
we have regarded so much as a cause, since, 
in a certain sense, it is the cause of all the 
motions with which we are acquainted; that 
it is not agreeable to our habits of thinking, 
to look at it as an effect. Even the mo- 
tions of the heavenly bodies seem complete- 
ly accounted for, by simply extending to these 
phenomena, the feelings with which we have 
been accustomed to regard the tendency of 
bodies to the earth ; whereas, if the two 
things were communicated at the same pe- 
riod of life, they would appear equally won- 
derful. An event appears to be explained, 
when it is brought within the pale of those 
youthful feelings and associations, which in 
their simplicity do not ask the reason of 
things. There is formed in the mind of the 
child, from his most familiar observations, 
however imperfect they may be, as it were 
a little nucleus, which serves as the basis 
of his future progress. This usually com- 
prises a large proportion of those natural 
appearances, which the philosopher in later 
periods of life finds it most difficult to ex- 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 33 

plain. The child grows up in his father's 
house and collects and arranges the most fa- 
miliar operations and events. Into this col- 
lection he afterwards receives whatever his- 
tory or science may communicate, and still 
feels at home ; a feeling with which won- 
der is never associated. 

This is not altogether as it should be. It 
is natural for the mature mind to ask the 
cause of things. It is unsatisfied when it 
does not find one, and can hardly exclude 
the thought of that Being, from whom all 
things exist. When therefore we have gone 
beyond the circle of youthful knowledge, 
and found a phenomenon in nature, which 
in its insulated state fills us with the ad- 
miration of God ; let us beware how we 
quench this feeling. Let us rather transfer 
something of this admiration to those phe- 
nomena of the same class, which have not 
hitherto directed our minds beyond the fact 
of their actual existence. As the mind ex- 
tends the boundaries of its knowledge, let 
a holy reference to God descend into its 
youthful treasures. That light which in the 
3 



34 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

distance seemed to be a miraculous blaze, 
as it falls on our own native hills may still 
seem divine, but will not surprise us ; and 
a sense of the constant presence of God will 
be happily blended with the most perfect 
freedom. 

Till the time of Newton, the motion of the 
heavenly bodies was indeed a miracle. It 
was an event which stood alone, and was 
probably regarded with peculiar reference to 
the Divine Being. The feeling of worship 
with which they had previously been regarded, 
had subsided into a feeling of wonder ; till at 
length they were received into the family of 
our most familiar associations. There is one 
step further. It is to regard gravitation, wher- 
ever it may be found, as an effect of the con- 
stant agency of the Divine Being, and from a 
consciousness of his presence and cooperation 
in every step we take, literally " to walk hum- 
bly with our God." It is agreeable to the 
laws of moral and intellectual progression, that 
all phenomena, whether of matter or mind, 
should become gradually classified ; till at 
length all things, wherever they are found ; 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 35 

all events, whether of history or experience, 
of mind or matter; shall at once conspire to 
form one stupendous miracle, and cease to 
be such. They will form a miracle in that 
they are seen to depend constantly and 
equally on the power of the Lord ; and they 
will cease to be a miracle in that the power 
which pervades them, is so constant, so uni- 
form, and so mild in its operation, that it pro- 
duces nothing of fear, nothing of surprise. 
From whatever point we contemplate the 
scene, we feel that we are still in our Fath- 
er's house ; go where we will, the paternal 
roof, the broad canopy of heaven, is extended 
over us. 

It is agreeable to our nature, that the mind 
should be particularly determined to one ob- 
ject. The eye appears to be the point at 
which the united rays of the sun within and 
the sun without, converge to an expression of 
unity ; and accordingly the understanding can 
be conscious of but one idea or image at a 
time. Still there is another and a different 
kind of consciousness which pervades the 
mind, which is coextensive with everything it 



36 GROWTH OP THE MIND. 

actually possesses. There is but one object 
in nature on which the eye looks directly, but 
the whole body is pervaded with nerves which 
convey perpetual information of the existence 
and condition of every part. So it is with 
the possessions of the mind ; and when an 
object ceases to be the subject of this kind 
of consciousness, it ceases to be remembered. 
The memory, therefore, as was said, is not a 
dormant, but an active power. It is rather 
the possession than the retention of truth. It 
is a consciousness of the will ; a conscious- 
ness of character ; a consciousness which is 
produced by the mind's preserving in effort, 
whatever it actually possesses. It is the 
power which the mind has of preserving 
truth, without actually making it the sub- 
ject of thought ; bearing a relation to 
thought, analogous to what this bears to 
the actual perception of the senses, or to 
language. Thus we remember a distant ob- 
ject without actually thinking of it, in the 
same way that we think of it, without actu- 
ally seeing it. 

The memory is not limited, because to the 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 37 

affections, viewed simply as such, number is 
not applicable. They become distinct and 
are classified, when connected with truths, or, 
from being developed, are applied to their 
proper objects. Love may be increased, but 
not multiplied. A man may feel intensely, 
and the quantity and quality of his feeling 
may affect the character of his thought, but 
still it preserves its unity. The most ardent 
love is not attended with more than one idea, 
but on the contrary has a tendency to confine 
the mind to a single object. Every one must 
have remarked, that a peculiar state of feeling 
belongs to every exercise of the understand- 
ing ; unless somewhat of this feeling remamed 
after the thought had passed away, there 
would be nothing whereby the latter could 
be recalled. The impression thus left, exists 
continually in the mind; though, as different 
objects engage the attention, it may become 
less vivid. These impressions go to comprise 
the character of an individual ; especially 
when they have acquired a reality and fix- 
edness, in consequence of the feelings in 
which they originated, having resulted in the 



38 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

actions to which they tend. They enter into 
every subject about which we are thinking, 
and the particular modification they receive 
from that subject gives them the appearance 
of individuality ; while they leave on the 
subject itself, the image of that character 
which they constitute. 

When a man has become acquainted with 
any science, that state of the aifections which 
properly belongs to this science, (whatever di- 
rection his mind may take afterwards,) still 
maintains a certain influence ; and this influ- 
ence is the creative power by which his knowl- 
edge on the subject is reproduced. Such im- 
pressions are to the mind, what logarithms 
are in numbers ; preserving our knowledge in 
its fulness indeed, but before it has expanded 
into an infinite variety of thoughts. Brown 
remarks, " We will the existence of certain 
ideas, it is said, and they arise in consequence 
of our volition ; though assuredly to will any 
idea is to know that we will, and therefore 
to be conscious of that very idea, which we 
surely need not desire to know, when we al- 
ready know it so well as to will its actual 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 39 

existence." The author does not discriminate 
between looking at an object and thence desir- 
ing it, and simply that condition of feeling be- 
tween which and certain thoughts there is an 
established relation, so that the former cannot 
exist to any considerable degi*ee without pro- 
ducing the latter. Of this exertion of the will, 
every one must have been conscious in his 
efforts of recollection. Of this exertion of the 
will, the priest must be conscious, when, (if 
he be sincere,) by the simple prostration of 
his heart before his Maker, his mind is crowd- 
ed with the thoughts and language of prayer. 
Of this exertion of the will, the poet must be 
conscious, when he makes bare his bosom for 
the reception of nature, and presents her 
breathing with his own life and soul. But 
it is needless to illustrate that of which every 
one must be sensible. 

It follows from these views of the subject, 
that the true way to store the memory is to 
develop the affections. The mind must grow, 
not from external accretion, but from an in- 
ternal principle. Much may be done by oth- 
ers in aid of its development; but in all that 



40 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

is done it should not be forgotten that, even 
from its earliest infancy, it possesses a charac- 
ter and a principle of freedom, which should 
he respected, and cannot be destroyed. Its 
peculiar propensities may be discerned, and 
proper nutriment and culture supplied ; but 
the infant plant, not less than the aged tree, 
must be permitted, with its own organs of 
absorption, to separate that which is pecu- 
liarly adapted to itself; otherwise it will be 
cast off as a foreign substance, or produce 
nothing but rottenness and deformity. 

The science of the mind itself will be the 
effect of its own development. This is merely 
an attendant consciousness, which the mind 
possesses, of the growth of its own powers ; 
and therefore, it would seem, need not be 
made a distinct object of study. Thus the 
power of reason may be imperceptibly devel- 
oped by the study of the demonstrative sci- 
ences. As it is developed, the pupil becomes 
conscious of its existence and its use. This 
is enough. He can in fact learn nothing more 
on the subject. If he learns to use his reason, 
what more is desired ? Surely it were useless, 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 41 

and worse than useless, to shut up the door of 
the senses, and live in indolent and laborious 
contemplation of one's own powers ; when, if 
anything is learned truly, it must be what 
these powers are, and therefore that they ought 
not to be thus employed. The best affections 
we possess will find their home in the objects 
around us, and, as it were, enter into and ani- 
mate the whole rational, animal, and vegeta- 
ble world. If the eye were turned inward to 
a direct contemplation of these affections, it 
would find them bereft of all their loveliness ; 
for when they are active, it is not of them we 
are thinking, but of the objects on which they 
rest. The science of the mind, then, will be 
the effect of all the other sciences. Can the 
child grow up in active usefulness, and not be 
conscious of the possession and use of his own 
limbs ? The body and the mind should grow 
together, and form the sound and perfect man, 
whose understanding may be almost measured 
by his stature. The mind will see itself in 
what it loves and is able to accomplish. Its 
own works will be its mirror ; and when it is 
present in the natural world, feeling the same 



42 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

spirit which gives life to every object by which 
it is surrounded, in its very union with nature 
it will catch a glimpse of itself, like that of 
pristine beauty united with innocence, at her 
own native fountain. 

What then is that development which the 
nature of the human mind requires ? What is 
that education which has heaven for its object, 
and such a heaven as will be the effect of the 
orderly growth of the spiritual man ? 

As all minds possess that in common which 
makes them human, they require to a certain 
extent the same general development, by which 
will be brought to view the same powers, how- 
ever distinct and varied they may be found in 
different individuals; and as every mind pos- 
sesses something peculiar, to which it owes its 
character and its effect, it requires a particular 
development by which may be produced a full, 
sincere, and humble expression of its natural 
features, and the most vigorous and efficient 
exertion of its natural powers. These make 
one, so far as regards the individual. 

Those sciences which exist embodied in the 
natural world, appear to have been designed to 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 43 

occupy the first place in the development of all 
minds, or in that which might be called the 
general development of the mind. These com- 
prise the laws of the animal, vegetable, and 
mineral kingdoms. The human mind, being 
as it were planted in nature by its heavenly 
Father, was designed to enter into matter, 
and detect knowledge, for its own purposes of 
growth and nutrition. This gives us a true 
idea of memory, or rather of what memory 
should be. We no longer think of a truth as 
being laid up in a mind for which it has no 
affinity, and by which it is perhaps never to be 
used ; but the latent affections, as they expand 
under proper culture, absolutely require the 
truth to receive them, and its first use is the 
very nutriment it affords. It is not more diffi- 
cult for the tree to return to the seed from 
which it sprung, than for the man who has 
learned thus, to cease to remember. The nat- 
ural sciences are the basis of all useful knowl- 
edge, alike important to man in whatever time, 
place, or condition he is found. They are 
coeval with our race, and must continue so 
long as the sun, moon, and stars endure. Be- 



44 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

fore there were facts for the pen of history to 
record, or vices for the arm of law to restrain, 
or nations for the exhibition of institutions for 
the government of themselves and intercourse 
with each other, at the very creation, these 
were pronounced good in the general benedic- 
tion ; and when history shall have finished her 
tale of sin and woe, and law shall have pun- 
ished her millions of offenders, and civil society 
shall have assumed every possible form, they 
will remain the same as when presented in 
living characters to the first parents of the 
human race. 

Natural philosophy seems almost essential 
to an enlightened independence of thought and 
action. A man may lean upon others, and be 
so well supported by an equal pressure in all 
directions, as to be apparently dependent on 
no one ; but his independence is apt to degen- 
erate into obstinacy, or betray itself in weak- 
ness, unless his mind is fixed on this unchang- 
ing basis. A knowledge of the world may give 
currency to his sentiments, and plausibility to 
his manners ; but it is more frequently a knowl- 
edge of the world that gives light to the path, 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 45 

and stability to the purposes. By the one he 
may learn what coin is current, by the other 
what possesses intrinsic value. The natural 
world was precisely and perfectly adapted to 
invigorate and strengthen the intellectual and 
moral man. Its first and highest use was not 
to support the vegetables which adorn, or the 
animals which cover, its surface ; nor yet to 
give sustenance to the human body ; — it has a 
higher and holier object, in the attainment of 
which these are only means. It was intended 
to draw forth and mature the latent energies 
of the soul ; to impart to them its own verdure 
and freshness ; to initiate them into its own 
mysteries ; and by its silent and humble de- 
pendence on its Creator, to leave on them, 
when it is withdrawn by death, the full im- 
pression of his likeness. 

It was the design of Providence, that the 
infant mind should possess the germ of every 
science. If it were not so, they could hardly 
be learned. The care of God provides for the 
flower of the field a place wherein it may grow, 
regale with its fragrance, and delight with its 
beauty. Is his providence less active over 



46 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

those to whom this flower offers its incense? 
No. The soil which produces the vine in its 
most healthy luxuriance is not better adapted 
to the end, than the world we inhabit to draw 
forth the latent energies of the soul, and fill 
them with life and vigor. As well might the 
eye see without light, or the ear hear without 
sound, as the human mind be healthy and ath- 
letic without descending into the natural world 
and breathing the mountain air. Is there aught 
in eloquence, which warms the heart ? She 
draws her fire from natural imagery. Is there 
aught in poetry, to enliven the imagination? 
There is the secret of all her power. Is there 
aught in science to add strength and dignity to 
the human mind ? The natural world is only 
the body, of which she is the soul. In books, 
science is presented to the eye of the pupil, as 
it were in a dried and preserved state; the 
time may come when the instructor will take 
him by the hand, and lead him by the running 
streams, and teach him all the principles of 
science as she comes from her Maker, as he 
would smell the fragrance of the rose without 
gathering it. 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 4T 

This love of nature, this adaptation of man 
to the place assigned him by his heavenly 
Father, this fulness of the mind as it descends 
into the works of God, is something which has 
been felt by every one, though to an imperfect 
degree ; and therefore needs no explanation. 
It is the part of science, that this be no longer 
a blind affection ; but that the mind be opened 
to a just perception of what it is which it 
loves. The affection which the lover first feels 
for his future wife, may be attended only by a 
general sense of her external beauty ; but his 
mind gradually opens to a perception of the 
peculiar features of the soul, of which the ex- 
ternal appearance is only an image. So it is 
with nature. Do we love to gaze on the sun, 
the moon, the stars, and the planets ? This af- 
fection contains in its bosom the whole science 
of astronomy, as the seed contains the future 
tree. It is the office of the instructor to give 
it an existence and a name, by making known 
the laws which govern the motions of the heav- 
enly bodies, the relation of these bodies to each 
other, and their uses. Have we felt delight in 
beholding the animal creation, in watching 



48 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

their pastimes and their labors ? It is the office 
of the instructor to give birth to this affection, 
by teaching the different classes of animals, 
with their peculiar characteristics, which in- 
habit the earth, air, and sea. Have we known 
the inexpressible pleasure of beholding the 
beauties of the vegetable world ? This affec- 
tion can only expand in the science of botany. 
Thus it is that the love of nature in the mass, 
may become the love of all the sciences, and 
the mind will grow and bring forth fruit from 
its own inherent power of development. Thus 
it is that memory refers to the growth and ex- 
pansion of the mind ; and what is thus, as it 
were, incorporated into its substance, can be 
forgotten only by a change in the direction of 
the affections, or the course of conduct of the 
individual analogous to that in his physical 
man, by which his very flesh and bones are 
exchanged for those of a different texture ; nor 
does he then entirely cease to remember, in- 
asmuch as he preserves a sense of his own 
identity. 

It is in this way the continual endeavor of 
Providence, that the natural sciences should 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 49 

be the spontaneous production of the human 
mind. To these should certainly be added, 
poetry and music ; for when we study the 
works of God as we should, we cannot dis- 
regard that inherent beauty and harmony in 
which these arts originate. These occasion 
in the mind its first glow of delight, like the 
taste of food, as it is offered to the mouth ; 
and the pleasure they afford, is a pledge of the 
strength and manhood afterwards imparted by 
the sciences. 

By poetry is meant all those illustrations of 
truth by natural imagery, which spring from 
the fact, that this world is the mirror of Him 
who made it. Strictly speaking, nothing has 
less to do with fiction than poetry. The day 
will come, and it may not be far distant, when 
this art will have another test of merit than 
mere versification, or the invention of strange 
stories ; when the laws by which poetry is 
tested will be as fixed and immutable as the 
laws of science ; when a change will be intro- 
duced into taste corresponding to that which 
Bacon introduced into philosophy, by which 
both will be confined within the limits of 
4 



50 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

things as they actually exist. It would seem 
that genius would be cramped ; that the powd- 
ers of invention would be destroyed ; by con- 
fining the human mind, as it were, at home, 
within the bounds which nature has assigned. 
But what wider scope need it have ? It reaches 
the throne of God ; it rests on his footstool. 
All things spiritual and natural are before it. 
There is as much that is true as false; and 
truth presented in natural imagery, is only 
dressed in the garments which God has given 
it. 

The imagination was permitted for ages 
to involve the world in darkness, by putting 
theory in the place of fact; till at length the 
greatest man revealed the simplest truth, that 
our researches must be governed by actual 
observation. God is the source of all truth. 
Creation (and what truth does not result from 
creation ? ) is the effect of the Divine Love 
and Wisdom. Simply to will and to think, 
with the Divine Being, result in creating ; in 
actually producing those realities, which form 
the groundwork of the thoughts and affections 
of man. But for the philosopher to desire a 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 51 

thing, and to think that it existed, produced 
nothing but his own theory. Hence it was 
necessary that he should bring his mind into 
coincidence with things as they exist, or, in 
other words, with the truth. 

Fiction in poetry must fall with theory in 
science, for they depend equally on the works 
of creation. The word fiction, however, is 
not intended to be used in its most literal 
sense ; but to embrace whatever is not in 
exact agreement with the creative spirit of 
God. It belongs to the true poet to feel 
this spirit, and to be governed by it ; to be 
raised above the senses ; to live and breathe 
in the inward efforts of things ; to feel the 
power of creation, even before he sees the 
effect; to witness the innocence and smiles 
of nature's infancy, not by extending the 
imagination back to chaos, but by raising 
the soul to nature's origin. The true poetic 
spirit, so far from misleading any, is the 
strongest bulwark against deception. It is 
the soul of science. Without it, the latter 
is a cheerless, heartless study, distrusting 
even the presence and power of Him to 



52 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

whom it owes its existence. Of all the 
poetry which exists, that only possesses the 
seal of immortality, which presents the im- 
age of God which is stamped on nature. 
Could the poetry which now prevails be 
viewed from the future, when all partialities 
and antipathies shall have passed away, and 
things are left to rest on their own founda- 
tions ; when good works shall have dwindled 
into insignificance, from the mass of useless 
matter that may have fallen from them, and 
bad ones shall have ceased to allure with 
false beauty ; we might catch a glimpse of 
the rudiments of this divine art, amid the 
weight of extraneous matter by which it is 
now protected, and which it is destined to 
throw oiF. The imagination will be refined 
into a chaste and sober view of unveiled na- 
ture. It will be confined within the bounds 
of reality. It will no longer lead the way 
to insanity and madness, by transcending the 
works of creation, and, as it were, wander- 
ing where God has no power to protect it ; 
but finding a resting-place in every created 
object, it will enter into it and explore its 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 53 

hidden treasures, the relation in which it 
stands to mind, and reveal the love it bears 
to its Creator. 

The state of poetry has always indicated 
the state of science and religion. The gods 
are hardly missed more, when removed from 
the temples of the ancients, than they are 
when taken from their poetry ; or than the- 
ory is, w^hen taken from their philosophy. 
Fiction ceases to be pleasing when it ceases 
to gain credence ; and what they admired 
in itself, commands much of its admiration 
DOW, as a relic of antiquity. The painting 
which in a darkened room only impressed 
us with the reality, as the sun rises upon 
it discovers the marks of the pencil ; and 
that shade of the mind can never again re- 
turn, which gave to ancient poetry its viv- 
idness and its power. Of this we may be 
sensible, by only considering how entirely 
powerless it would be, if poetry in all re- 
spects similar, were produced at the present 
day. A man's religious sentiments, and his 
knowledge of the sciences, are so entirely 
interwoven with all his associations ; they 



54 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

shed such light throughout every region of 
the mind, that nothing can please which is 
directly opposed to them ; — and though the 
forms which poetry may offer may sometimes 
be presented where this light begins to sink 
into obscurity, they should serve, like the 
sky and the clouds, as a relief to the eye, 
and not, like some unnatural body protrud- 
ing on the horizon, disturb the quiet they 
are intended to produce. When there shall 
be a religion which shall see God in every- 
thing, and at all times; and the natural sci- 
ences, not less than nature itself, shall be 
regarded in connection with Him ; the fire 
of poetry will begin to be kindled in its im- 
mortal part, and will burn without consum- 
ing. The inspiration so often feigned, will 
become real, and the mind of the poet will 
feel the spark which passes from God to 
nature. The veil will be withdrawn, and 
beauty and innocence displayed to the eye ; 
for which the lasciviousness of the imagina- 
tion and the wantonness of desire may seek 
in vain. 

There is a language not of words, but of 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 55 

things. "When this language shall have been 
made apparent, that which is human will 
have answered its end; and being as it were 
resolved into its original elements, will lose 
itself in nature. The use of language is 
the expression of our feelings and desires — 
the manifestation of the mind. But every- 
thing which is, whether animal or vegeta- 
ble, is full of the expression of that use for 
which it is designed, as of its own existence. 
If we did but understand its language, what 
could our words add to its meaning ? It is 
because we are unwilling to hear, that we 
find it necessary to say so much ; and we 
drown the voice of nature with the discor- 
dant jargon of ten thousand dialects. Let a 
man's language be confined to the expres- 
sion of that which actually belongs to his 
own mind ; and let him respect the smallest 
blade which grows, and permit it to speak 
for itself. Then may there be poetry, which 
may not be written perhaps, but which may 
be felt as a part of our being. 

Everything which surround^s us is full of 
the utterance of one word, completely ex- 



56 GKOWTH OP THE MIND. 

pressive of its nature. This word is its 
name ; for God, even now, could we but 
see it, is creating all things, and giving a 
name to every work of his love, in its per- 
fect adaptation to that for which it is de- 
signed. But man has abused his power, and 
has become insensible to the real character 
of the brute creation ; still more so to that 
of inanimate nature, because, in his selfish- 
ness, he is disposed to reduce them to sla- 
very. Therefore he is deaf. We find the 
animal world either in a state of savage 
wildness, or enslaved submission. It is possi- 
ble, that, as the character of man is changed, 
they may attain a midway condition equally 
removed from both. As the mind of man 
acknowledges *its dependence on the Divine 
Mind, brutes may add to their instinct sub- 
mission to human reason ; preserving an un- 
broken chain from our Father in heaven, to 
the most inanimate parts of creation. Such 
may be supposed to have been the condition 
of the animal on which the King of Zion 
rode into Jerusalem ; at once free and sub- 
ject to the will of the rider. Everything will 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 57 

seem to be conscious of its use ; and man 
will become conscious of the use of every- 
thing. 

By music is meant not merely that which 
exists in the rational world, whether in the 
song of angels or men ; not merely the sing- 
ing of birds and the lowing of cattle, by 
which the animal world expret^s their affec- 
tions and their wants — ^but that harmony 
which pervades also all orders of creation ; 
the music of the harp of universal nature, 
which is touched by the rays of the sun, and 
whose song is the morning, the evening and 
the seasons. Music is the voice of God, and 
poetry his language, both in his Word and 
works. The one is to the ear, what the 
other is to the eye. Every child of nature 
must feel their influence. There was a time, 
when the human mind was in more perfect 
harmony with the Divine Mind, than the 
lower orders of creation ; and the tale of the 
harp of Orpheus, to which the brutes, the 
vegetables, and the rocks listened, is not al- 
together unfounded in reality ; but when the 
selfish and worldly passions usurped the 



58 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

place of love to our God and our neighbor, 
the mind of man began to be mute in its 
praise. The original order was reversed. 
The very stones cry out, and we do well to 
listen to them. 

There is a most intimate and almost 
inseparable connection between poetry and 
music. This is indicated by the fact that 
they are always united. Nothing is sung 
which has not some pretensions to poetry ; 
and nothing has any pretensions to poetry 
in which there is not something of music. 
A good ear is essential to rhythm ; and 
rhythm is essential to verse. It is the per- 
fection of poetry, that it addresses two 
senses at once, the ear and the eye ; that it 
prepares the affections for the object before 
it is presented ; that it sends light through 
the understanding, by forming a communi- 
cation between the heart of man and the 
works of God. 

The character of music must have always 
harmonized with that of poetry. It is essen- 
tial to the former that it should be in agree- 
ment with our feelings ; for it is from this 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 59 

circumstance that it derives its power. That 
music which is in unison with the Divine 
Mind, alone deserves the name. So various 
is it found in the different conditions of 
man, that it is hardly recognized as the 
same thing. There is music in the war- 
song of the savage, and in the sound for 
battle. Alas ! how unlike that music, which 
proclaimed peace on earth and good will 
towards men. Poetry and music, like virtu- 
ous females in disguise, have followed our 
race into the darkest scenes to which the 
fall has brought them. We find them in 
the haunts of dissipation and vice ; in the 
song of revelry and lewdness. We meet 
them again, kindling the fire of devotion at 
the altar of God ; and find them more and 
more perfect as we approach their divine 
origin. 

There prevail, at present, two kinds of 
music, as diverse as their origins — profane 
and religious. The one is the result of the 
free, unrestrained expression of natural feel- 
ings ; the other, of a kind which indicates 
that these feelings are placed under resti-aint. 



60 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

In the one, there is often something of sen- 
suality ; in the other, of sadness. There is 
a point in moral and religious improvement, 
in which the sensual will be subdued, and 
the sorrowful disappear ; which will combine 
the pleasure of the one with the sanctity of 
the other. When a sense of the presence of 
God shall be coextensive with the thoughts of 
the mind, and religion shall consecrate every 
word and action of our lives, the song of 
Zion will be no longer sung in a strange 
land. The Divine Love, the soul and es- 
sence of music, will descend, not in the 
thunders of Sinai, but will seem to acquire 
volume, as it tunes the heart in unison with 
itself, and the tongue in unison with the 
heart. The changes in the character of our 
music, which may be the effect of the grad- 
ual regeneration of the world, are hardly 
within the reach of conjecture. 

Enough has been said to illustrate gener- 
ally the influence of the natural world in the 
development of the mind. The actual con- 
dition of society operates to produce the 
same effect, with hardly less power. In this 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 61 

are comprised the religious and civil institu- 
tions of one's own country ; that peculiar 
character in which they originate ; and a 
knowledge of the past, as, by disclosing the 
origin and progress of things, it throws light 
on the prospect actually before us. As the 
philosophy connected with the natural world 
is that in which the mind may take root, 
by which it may possess an independence 
worthy a being whose eternal destiny is in 
his own hands — so the moral and civil insti- 
tutions, the actual condition of society, is the 
atmosphere which surrounds and protects it ; 
in which it sends forth its branches and bears 
fruit. 

The spiritual part of man is as really a 
substance as the material; and is as capable 
of aating upon spirit, as matter is upon mat- 
ter. It is not from words of instruction and 
advice, that the mind of the infant derives 
its first impetus ; it gathers strength from 
the warmth of those affections which over- 
shadow it, and is nourished by a mother's 
love, even before it has attained the power 
of thought. It is the natural tendency of 



62 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

things, that an individual should be brought 
into a situation, in which the external con- 
dition of the place, and the circle of society 
in which he is, are particularly adapted to 
bring forth to view his hereditary character. 
The actual condition of the human mind is, 
as it were, the solid substance, in which the 
laws of moral and intellectual philosophy and 
political economy (whatever may be their 
quality) exist embodied, as the natural sci- 
ences do in the material world. A knowl- 
edge of those laws, such as they exist, is the 
natural consequence of the development of 
the affections by which a child is connected 
with those that surround him. 

The connection of mind is not less power- 
ful or universal than that of matter. All 
minds, whatever may be their condition, are 
not unconnected with God ; and, consequent- 
ly, not unconnected with each other. All 
nations, under whatever system of govern- 
ment, and in whatever state of civilization, 
are under the Divine Providence surely, but 
almost imperceptibly, advancing to a moral 
and political order, such as the world has 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 63 

not yet seen. They are guided by the same 
hand, and with a view to the same destiny. 
Much remains to be done, and more to be 
suffered ; but the end is certain. The hum- 
blest individual may, nay, must aid in the 
accomplishment of this consummation. It is 
not for time or space to set limits to the 
effects of the life of a single man. Let then 
the child be so initiated into a knowledge of 
the condition of mankind, that the love at 
first indulged in the circle of his father's 
family shall gradually subside into a chaste 
and sober love of his country ; and of his 
country, not as opposed to other countries, 
but as aiding them in the same great object. 
Let the young mind be warmed and cher- 
ished by whatever is chaste and generous in 
the mind of the public ; and be borne on to 
a knowledge of our institutions, by the rich 
current of the disposition to preserve them. 

Thus it is, that the child is no sooner 
brought into this world, than the actual con- 
dition, both of the world itself and of soci- 
ety, acts powerfully to draw forth the ener- 
gies of his mind. If mankind had retained 



64 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

that order in which they were created, this 
influence, in cooperation with the Divine, 
would have been sufficient, as it was de- 
signed to have been, for all the purposes of 
God. Nature, the very image of divine love- 
liness and the purest affections of the heart, 
which approach still nearer the same origin, 
acting together on the infant mind ; it would 
seem as if the effect would be almost as 
certain as any process of growth which is 
witnessed among the productions of the 
natural world. But man is fallen ; and 
the operation of this influence, in different 
conditions of society, may produce different 
results, but in none is sufficient to capacitate 
him for that life of usefulness and happiness 
for which he was designed. The influence 
of society cannot be sufficient, since this 
cannot raise a man above its own level ; and 
the society of earth is no longer the society 
of heaven. This influence may bring for- 
ward all the warlike energies of the young 
savage, and direct them in their utmost 
vigor to the destruction of his enemies, and 
of the beasts of the forest; and he may look 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. Q5 

onward with rapture to the happy hunting- 
grounds beyond the grave. What disap- 
pointment awaits him in the other world, all 
of us may easily imagine. This influence 
may brings forth and gratify the unchaste 
and beastly passions of the Turk ; and he 
may look forward, with his Koran in his 
hand, to a heaven of sensuality and crime. 
It need not be said how widely different will 
be found the reality. Christians generally 
are standing in expectation of a happiness 
as boundless in extent, as it is undefined in 
its nature ; and with an infinite variety of 
passions, in whose gratification alone they 
have experienced delight, are expecting a 
heaven in which simple useless enjoyment 
will rise like a flood and immerse the mind. 
The result must of necessity, be as various 
as the condition of the individuals by whom 
it is anticipated. Still there is a church yet 
in its coming, unseen, though not unseeing, 
shrouded from the rest of the world by the 
very brilliancy of its own light, which would 
resist the impulse of every evil affection, and 
look for heaven simply in the delight of that 



66 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

which is chaste, pure, and holy ; which, by 
removing that which renders duty undelight- 
ful, would draw nigh to the only Source of 
real enjoyment; which would find its happi- 
ness and its God in the very commandments 
which have been the terror of the world; to 
which the effect is no longer doubtful, since 
it is made acquainted with the cause, and 
which, as it anticipates no reward, will meet 
with no disappointment. When this church 
shall be fully established on the earth, the 
voice of the Lord will be no longer ob- 
structed as it descends from above the heav- 
ens : — " Suffer little children to come unto me, 
and forbid them not, for of such is the king- 
dom of GodJ^ 

The influence of the natural world, how- 
ever beneficial it may prove, is not such as it 
was designed to have been. Man has ever 
sought a condition in nature, which should 
correspond with the state of his own mind. 
The savage would pine and droop, if too sud- 
denly removed to scenes of civilization, like 
grass which had grown in rank luxuriance un- 
der the shade of the oak, if the branches were 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. G7 

cleft, and it was at once exposed to the power 
of the sun. The character of all the lower 
orders of creation has suffered a change in 
consequence of that in the condition of man, 
the extent of which cannot be measured. 
That the sun was darkened at the crucifix- 
ion of our Lord was no miracle. It was as 
much the necessary consequence of that event, 
as its present lustre is of His glory. It is not 
then for these, the objects of nature, to restore 
to us that moral order, the want of which has 
wrought such changes on themselves. 

There is then another power which is neces- 
sary to the orderly development of the mind 
— the power of the Word of God. This in- 
deed has been implied in all the preceding 
remarks. No possession? and no efforts of the 
mind are unconnected with it, whatever may 
be the appearance. Revelation so mingles 
with everything which meets us, that it is not 
easy for us to measure the degree to which 
our condition is affected by it. Its effects ap- 
pear miraculous at first, but after they have 
become established, the mind, as in the ordi- 
nary operations of nature, is apt to become 



68 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

unconscious of the power by which they are 
produced. 

All growth or development is effected from 
within, outward. It is so with animals; it is 
so with vegetables ; it is so with the body ; it 
is so with the mind. Were it not for a power 
within the soul, as the soul is within the body, 
it could have no possibility of subsistence. 
That the growth of the material part depends 
on the presence of that which is spiritual, is 
obvious from the fact, that at death the former 
falls to decay. If it were possible for God to 
be detached from our spiritual part, this would 
decay likewise. The doctrine, then, of the 
immortality of the soul is, simply, "I in my 
Father, and ye in me, and I in you." It is the 
union of the Divine with the human — of that 
from which all things are, and on which they 
depend, the Divine Will, with man through 
the connecting medium of Divine Truth. It 
is the tendency of the Bible to effect this un- 
ion, and of course to restore a consciousness 
of it. It is a union which God desires with 
all, therefore even the wicked who reject it 
partake of his immortality, though not of his 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 69 

happiness. When, in the process of regenera- 
tion, this union is accomplished, the fear of 
dissolution will be as impossible in this world 
as in the other ; and before this is effected, the 
fear of dissolution may exist there as well as 
here. It is not the place where a person is, 
but the condition of mind which is to be re- 
garded ; and there is no antidote against the 
fear of death, but the consciousness of being 
united with the Fountain of life. But it is 
asked, how can the fear of death exist after it 
has actually taken place ? The separation of 
the spiritual and material part, so far as the 
nature of their connection is understood, can 
produce no fear. Were it not for evil in our- 
selves, it would rather wear the appearance of 
a state of uncommon quiet. There is upon 
no subject a more powerful tendency to in- 
stinctive knowledge, than upon that of death. 
The darkness with which it is veiled, presents 
but a lamentable picture of our present con- 
dition. It is its own dissolution of which the 
mind is afraid ; and that want of conjunction 
with God which renders this fear possible here, 
may render it possible anywhere. 



70 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

It is the sole object of the Bible to conjoin 
the soul with God ; and, as this is effected, it 
may be understood in what way the Holy 
Spirit operates interiorly to produce its de- 
velopment. It is not a mere metaphor, it is 
a plain and simple fact, that the Spirit of 
God, is as necessary to the development of 
the mind, as the power of the natural sun 
to the growth of vegetables, and in the same 
way. But let us remember, that, as in na- 
ture the heat and light may be converted 
into the most noxious poison ; so the Spirit 
of God, in itself perfectly pure and holy, 
may be converted into passions the most op- 
posite to its nature. It is left to us to open 
our hearts to its influence, by obeying the com- 
mandments. " K ye love me, keep my com- 
mandments ; and I will pray the Father, and 
he shall give you another Comforter that he 
may abide with you forever." " He that be- 
lieveth on the Son hath everlasting life ; " and 
he will become conscious of living and grow- 
ing from God. 

It is not consistent with the nature of things 
that the full practical effect of a subject should 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 71 

be at once revealed to the mind. The child is 
led on to a knowledge of his letters by a thou- 
sand little enticements, and by the tender co- 
ercion of parental authority, while he is yet 
ignorant of the treasures mysteriously con- 
cealed in their combinations. The arts have 
been courted merely for the transient gratifi- 
cation they afford. Their connection with re- 
ligion and with the sciences is beginning to 
be discovered ; and they are yet to yield a 
powerful influence in imparting to the mind 
its moral harmony and proportions. The 
sciences themselves have been studied prin- 
cipally as subjects of speculation and amuse- 
ment. They have been sought for the grat- 
ification they afford, and for the artificial 
standing they give in society, by the line of 
distinction which is drawn between the learned 
and the vulgar. The discovery of their con- 
nection with the actual condition of man, is 
of later origin ; and though their application 
to use is yet in its infancy, they are beginning 
to throw a light on almost every department 
of labor, hitherto unexampled in the annals 
of the world. Religion, too, has been a sub- 



72 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

ject of speculation, something evanescent, a 
theory, a prayer, a hope. It remains for this 
also to become practical, by the actual accom- 
plishment of that which it promises. It re- 
mains for the promise of reward to be swal- 
lowed up in the work of salvation. It re- 
mains for the soul to be restored to its union 
with God — to heaven. Christianity is the tree 
of life again planted in the world ; and, by 
its own vital power, it has been, year after 
year, casting off the opinions of men, like the 
external bark which partakes not of its life. 
It remains for the human mind to become 
conformed to its spirit, that its principles may 
possess the durability of their origin. 

Such are the effects to be anticipated from 
the Bible in the development of the mind. It 
has begun the work, and will perfect it in each 
individual, so far as, by a life according to the 
commandments, he becomes willing that it 
should. There is within it a secret power, 
which exerts an influence on the moral and 
intellectual world like that of the sun on the 
physical ; and, however long and successfully 
it may be resisted by some, not the less cer- 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 73 

tain in its effect on the ultimate condition of 
society. I am aware that, in these remarks, I 
am ascribing to the spirit of God, to the spirit 
of the Word, a power which some may be un- 
willing to allow to it. The Bible is thought 
to resemble other books, and to be subject to 
the same laws of criticism ; and we may be 
sometimes in danger of becoming insensible 
to its internal power, from the very mass of 
human learning with which it is encumbered. 
" Is not this the carpenter's son ? " 

There is one law of criticism, the most im- 
portant to the thorough understanding of any 
work, which seems not to have been brought 
sufficiently into view in the study of the Bi- 
ble. It is that by which we should be led by 
a continued exercise of those powers which 
are most clearly demonstrated in an author ; 
by continued habits of mind and action ; to 
approximate to that intellectual and moral 
condition, in which the work originated. If 
it were desired to make a child thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the work of a genuine poet, I 
would not put the poem and lexicon in his 
hand, and bid him study and learn — I would 



74 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

rather make him familiar with whatever was 
calculated to call forth the power of poetry in 
himself; since it requires the exercise of the 
same powers to understand, that it does to 
produce. I would point him to that source 
from which the author himself had caught his 
inspiration, and, as I led him to the baptismal 
fount of nature, I would consecrate his powers 
to that Being from whom nature exists. I 
would cultivate a sense of the constant pres- 
ence and agency of God, and direct him in- 
ward to the presence-chamber of the Most 
High, that his mind might become imbued 
with His spirit. I would endeavor, by the 
whole course of his education, to make him 
a living poem, that, when he read the poetry 
of others, it might be effulgent with the light 
of his own mind. 

The poet stands on the mountain, with the 
face of nature before him, calm and placid. If 
we would enter into his views, we must go 
where he is. We must catch the direction of 
his eye, and yield ourselves up to the instinc- 
tive guidance of his will, that we may have a 
secret foretaste of his meaning — that we may 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 75 

be conscious of the image in its first concep- 
tion — that we may perceive its beginnings and 
gradual 'growth, till at length it becomes dis- 
tinctly depicted on the retina of the mind. 
Without this, we may take the dictionary in 
our hands, and settle the definition of every 
word, and still know as little of the lofty con- 
ceptions of the author, as the weary traveller, 
who passes round in the farthest verge which 
is visible from the mountain, knows of the 
scenery which is seen from its summit. It has 
been truly said, that Johnson was incapable of 
conceiving the beauties of Milton. Yet John- 
son was himself a living dictionary of Milton's 
language. The true poet, when his mind is 
full, fills his language to overflowing ; and it is 
left to the reader to preserve what the words 
cannot contain. It is that part which cannot 
be defined ; that w^hich is too delicate to en- 
dure the unrestrained gaze ; that which shrinks 
instinctively from the approach of anything 
less chaste than itself, and though present, like 
the inhabitants of the other world, is un per- 
ceived by flesh and blood, which is worth all 
the rest. This acknowledges no dwelling-place 



76 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

but the mind. Stamp the living light on the 
extended face of nature, beyond the power of 
darkness at the setting of the sun, and you 
may preserve such light as this, when the mind 
rises not to meet it in its coming. 

If it were desired to make an individual ac- 
quainted with a w^ork in one of the abstract 
sciences, this might be best effected by leading 
him gradually to whatever conduced to the 
growth of those powers, on which a knowledge 
of these sciences depends ; by cultivating a 
principle of dependence on the Divine Being, 
a purity and chastity of the affections, which 
will produce a tranquil condition, of all things 
the most favorable to clear perceptions ; by 
leading him to an habitual observation of the 
relations of things, and to such continued ex- 
ertion of the understanding, as, calling into use 
its full powers without inducing fatigue, may 
impart the strength of the laborer, without the 
degradation of the slave ; in a word, by form- 
ing a penetrating, mathematical mind, rather 
than by communicating mathematical infor- 
mation. The whole character and complexion 
of the mind will be gradually changed ; till at 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 77 

length it will become (chemically speaking) 
in its very nature an active solvent of these 
subjects. They fall to pieces as soon as 
they come in contact with it, and assume 
an arrangement agreeable to that of the mind 
itself, with all the precision of crystallization. 
They are then understood; for the most per- 
fect understanding of a subject is simply a 
perception of harmony existing betw^een the 
subject and the mind itself. Indeed, the un- 
derstanding which any individual possesses of 
a subject might be mathematically defined 

the subject proposed, i xi • x x 

n — 7 , ■ ' ' , . — ^-r; and there is a constant 

the actual character of his mmd ' 

struggle for the divisor and dividend to become 
the same by a change in the one or the other, 
that the result may be unity, and the under- 
standing perfect. 

There is an analogy (such as may exist 
beween things human and things divine) be- 
tween that discipline which is required in order 
to understand a production of taste or science, 
and that which is necessary to a clear per- 
ception of the truths of the Bible. As it is 
requisite to a full sense of the beauties of 
poetry, that the individual should be himself a 



78 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

poet, and to a thorough knowledge of a work 
of science, that he should not merely have 
scientific information, but a scientific mind ; so 
it is necessary to a knowledge of the Bible, 
that the mind should be formed in the image 
and likeness of God. An understanding of the 
Word is the effect of a life according to its 
precepts. It requires, not the obedience of the 
rich man who went away sorrowful, but the 
obedience of him who holds every other pos- 
session, whether it consist in the acquirements 
of the mind or in earthly property, in subjec- 
tion to the Holy Spirit within him. " If ye 
will do the will of God, ye shall know of the 
doctrine," is a law of exegesis, before which 
false sentiments will melt away, like frost be- 
fore the rising sun. There is within the mind 
the golden vein of duty, which, if followed 
aright, will lead td an increasing brightness, 
before which the proudest monuments of hu- 
man criticism will present an appearance like 
that of the dark disk of this world, as the eye of 
the dying man opens on the scenes of the other. 
The world is beginning to be changed from 
what it was. Physical power, instead of 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 79 

boasting of its deeds of prowess, and pointing 
with the tomahawk or the lance to the bloody 
testimonies of its strength, is beginning to 
leave its image on the rugged face of nature, 
and to feel the living evidence of its achieve- 
ments, in the happy circle of domestic life. It 
remains for intellectual strength to lose the 
consciousness of its existence in the passions 
subdued, and to reap the reward of its labors, 
not in the spoils of an enemy, but in the fruits 
of honest industry. It remains for us to be- 
come more thoroughly acquainted with the 
laws of moral mechanism. Instead of making 
unnecessary and ineffectual exertions in the 
direct attainment of truth, it remains for us to 
make equal efforts to cleanse our own minds 
and to do good to others ; and what was be- 
fore unattainable will become easy, as the rock 
which untutored strength cannot move, may 
be raised by a touch of the finger. 

The Bible differs from other books, as our 
Lord differed from men. He was born of a 
woman, but his spirit was the everlasting 
Father. It is humble in its appearance, as 
nature is when compared to art; and some 



80 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

parts which Providence has permitted to 
remain within the same cover have often 
attracted more attention than that which is 
really divine. From the very nature of per- 
fect innocence its presence is unnoticed, save 
by him by whom it is loved. Divine Love, 
in its perfect thoughtlessness of itself, enters 
the atheistical heart, unperceived. Such an 
one thinks meanly of those who think humbly 
of themselves, and with perfect humility the 
last vestige of reality disappears. To him, 
both nature and the Word are like a deserted 
building, through which, as he passes, he is 
conscious of nothing but the sound of his 
own footsteps; but to him whose heart opens 
to the Divine Influence, this building appears 
to assume, from the internal cause of its crea- 
tion, the symmetry of perfect proportions, till 
at length, as he becomes more and more 
conscious of the presence with which it is 
filled, he sees no temple, " for the Lord God 
Almighty and the Lamb are the temple." 
The Word resembles the Hebrew language, 
in which much of it is written. To him 
who knows not its spirit, it is an empty form 



GROWTH OF THE MIXD. 81 

without sound or vowel; but to him who is 
alive to the Divine Influence, it is filled with 
the living voice of God. 

The Bible can never be fully understood, 
either by making it subservient to natural 
reason, or by blindly adopting what reason 
would reject; but by that illumination of the 
understanding and enlargement of the reason 
which will result from a gradual conformity 
to its precepts. Reason now is something 
very different from what it was a few cen- 
turies past. We are in the habit of thinking 
that the mode of reasoning has changed ; 
but this appears to be merely an indication 
of a change which has taken place in the 
character of the mind itself. Syllogistic rea- 
soning will be superseded by something 
higher and better. It amounts to nothing 
but the discernment and expression of the 
particulars which go to comprise something 
more general ; and, as the human mind per- 
mits things to assume a proper arrangement 
from their own inherent power of attraction, 
it is no longer necessary to bind them to- 
gether with syllogisms. Few minds can now 
6 



82 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

endure the tediousness of being led blindfold 
to a conclusion, and of being satisfied with 
the result merely from the recollection of 
having been satisfied on the way to it. The 
mind requires to view the parts of a subject. 
not only separately, but together ; and the 
understanding, in the exercise of those pow- 
ers of arrangement, by which a subject is 
presented in its just relations to other things, 
takes the name of reason. We appear to be 
approaching that condition which requires 
the union of reason and eloquence, and will 
be satisfied with neither without the other. 
We neither wish to see an anatomical plate 
of bare muscles, nor the gaudy daubings 
of finery ; but a happy mixture of strength 
and beauty. We desire language neither 
extravagant nor cold, but blood warm. Rea- 
son is beginning to learn the necessity of sim- 
ply tracing the relations which exist between 
created things, and of not even touching what 
it examines, lest it disturb the arrangement in 
the cabinet of creation — and as, in the pro- 
gress of moral improvement, the imagination 
(which is called the creative power of man) 



GROWTH OP THE MIND. 83 

shall coincide with the actively creative will 
of God, reason will be clothed with eloquence, 
as nature is with verdure. 

Reason is said to be a power given to 
man for his protection and safety. Let us 
not be deceived by words. If this were the 
particular design, it should be found in equal 
perfection in every condition of the mind ; 
for all are in equal need of such a power. 
It is the office of the eye to discern the ob- 
jects of nature, and it may protect the body 
from any impending injury; and the under- 
standing may be useful in a similar way to 
the spiritual man. Reason is partly a natu- 
ral and partly an acquired power. The un- 
derstanding is the eye, with simply the power 
of discerning the light; but reason is the eye, 
whose powers have been enlarged by exercise 
and experience, which measures the distance 
of objects, compares their magnitudes, dis- 
cerns their colors, and selects and arranges 
them according to the relation they bear to 
each other. In the progress of moral improve- 
ment no power of the mind, or rather no 
mode of exercising the understanding, under- 



84 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

goes a more thorough and decisive change 
than this. It is like the change from chaos 
to creation ; since it requires a similar exercise 
of the understanding in man to comprehend 
creation, to what it does in God to produce 
it; and every approach to him, by bringing 
us nearer the origin of things, enables us to 
discover analogies in what was before chaotic. 
This is a change which it is the grand de- 
sign of revelation to accomplish ; reason 
should therefore come to revelation in the 
spirit of prayer, and not in that of judg- 
ment. Nothing can be more intimately and 
necessarily connected with the moral charac- 
ter of an individual than his rational powers, 
since it is his moral character which is the 
grand cause of that peculiar classification 
and arrangement which characterizes his 
mind ; hence revelation, in changing the for- 
mer, must change the latter also. 

The insufficiency of reason to judge of the 
Bible, is obvious on the very face of revela- 
tion from its miracles. The laws of Divine 
Operation are perfectly uniform and harmo- 
nious ; and a miracle is a particular instance 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 85 

of Divine Power, which, for want of a more 
interior and extended knowledge of the ways 
of God, appearing to stand alone, and to 
have been the result of an unusual exertion 
of the Divine Will, creates in the minds of 
men, what its name implies, a sensation of 
wonder. That there are miracles in the Bi- 
ble, proves that there are laws of the Divine 
Operation and of the Divine Government, 
which are not embraced within the utmost 
limits of that classification and arrangement, 
which is the result of natural reason. While, 
therefore, human reason professes to be con- 
vinced of the reality of revelation from its 
miracles, let it humble itself before them. 
Let it bow itself to the earth, that it may 
be exalted to a more intimate acquaintance 
with these heavenly strangers. Let it follow 
the Lord in the regeneration, till the won- 
derful disappear in the paternal. 

Miracles are like angels who have some- 
times been visible to men, who would much 
more willingly have introduced them to an 
acquaintance with the laws and society of 
heaven, than have filled them with fear and 



86 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

consternation. They are insulated examples 
of laws as boundless as the universe, and by 
the manner in which we are affected by 
them, prove how much we have to learn, 
and how utterly incompetent we are to judge 
of the ways of God, from that reason which 
is founded on our own limited and falla- 
cious observation. The resurrection of our 
Lord must have been a very different mira- 
cle to the angels at the* sepulchre, from what 
it was to Mary. They saw it from the 
other side of the grave, with a knowledge of 
the nature of that death which they had 
themselves experienced ; she saw an insulated 
fact, not at all coincident with her views on 
the subject of which it was an illustration. 
They saw the use and design of that which 
had been accomplished ; she saw the sepulchre 
and the linen clothes lying. As they gazed 
intensely at the same subject, the veil of 
heaven was withdrawn, and they beheld each 
other, face to face. She was filled with fear; 
they with love and compassion. If Mary 
were to persist in judging of this subject 
from her own reason ; from a knowledge of 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 87 

those laws with which she was previously 
acquainted ; how could her views ever be- 
come angelic ? How could the dark cloud 
of admiration be ever filled with the rich 
light of the rising sun ? 

Man alone, of all created things, appears 
on his own account to want the full meas- 
ure of his happiness ; because he alone has 
left the order of his creation. He stands, 
even at the present period, half convinced 
of the reality of the future state. It is the 
design of revelation to restore to him that 
moral condition in which he will possess as 
necessarily the consciousness of immortality, 
as the brute does that of existence ; for a 
consciousness of existence, together with that 
of union with God, is a consciousness of 
eternal life. Let us come to the Bible, then, 
with no hopes of arbitrary reward, and no 
fears of arbitrary punishment ; but let us 
come to it, as to that, which, if followed 
aright, will produce a condition of mind of 
which happiness will be the natural and ne- 
cessary consequence. 

It is often said that the Bible has nothing 



88 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

to do with metaphysics or the sciences. An 
individual, whatever be his condition, always 
retains, to a certain extent, a consciousness 
of his moral and intellectual character ; and 
the more this character is exalted, the more 
minute and discriminating will be this con- 
sciousness. Who is it that formed the hu- 
man mind, and who is here endeavoring to 
restore it to its true order ? The Bible has 
the mind for its subject, that condition of 
mind which has heaven for its object, and the 
Father of mind for its author. Has it noth- 
ing to do with metaphysics ? It has indeed 
nothing to do with that metaphysics which 
we shall leave with our bodies in the graves ; 
but of that which will shine with more and 
more brilliancy, as the passage is opened, 
not through distant regions of space, but 
through the secret part of our own souls to 
the presence of God, it is the very life and 
being. Can omniscience contemplate the 
happiness of the mind, without regard to its 
nature ? Were we disposed to improve the 
condition of the savage, what course should 
we pursue ? Should we not endeavor to 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 89 

change his habits of mind and body, by- 
teaching him the arts of civilization, instruct- 
ing him in the sciences, and gradually intro- 
ducing him to that portion of social order 
which is here attained ? And are not all 
these most intimately connected with our 
own condition of mind ? Are they not 
merely the expression of its countenance ? 
In the same way is it the endeavor of the 
Divine Mind in the Bible to restore all to 
his own image and likeness ; and to say that 
the Bible has nothing to do with metaphys- 
ics, is to say that the present condition of 
the mind has nothing to do with what it 
should be, and that present metaphysics 
have nothing to do with religion. 

It is said that the Bible has nothing to do 
with the sciences. It is true that it does 
not teach them directly ; but it is gradually 
unfolding a condition of mind, out of which 
the sciences will spring as naturally, as the 
leaves and blossoms from the tree that bears 
them. It is the same power which acts 
simultaneously to develop the soul itself, and 
to develop nature — to form the mind and 



90 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

the mould which is destined to receive it. 
As we behold the external face of the world, 
our souls will hold communion with its 
spirit; and we shall seem to extend our con- 
sciousness beyond the narrow limits of our 
own bodies, to the living objects that sur- 
round us. The mind will enter into nature 
by the secret path of him who forms her ; 
and can be no longer ignorant of her laws, 
when it is a witness of her creation. 

I have endeavored to illustrate, generally, 
in what way the natural sciences, the actual 
condition of society, and the Word of God, 
are necessary to the development of all minds, 
in a manner analogous to that in which the 
earth, the atmosphere and the sun combine 
to bring forth the productions of nature. I 
shall say but a few words with respect to 
that particular development which is requisite 
to the full manifestation of the peculiar powers 
possessed by any individual. 

It is well known that at a certain period 
of life the character of a man begins to be 
more distinctly marked. He appears to be- 
come separated from that which surrounds 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 91 

him — to stand in a measure aloof from his 
associates — to raise his head above the shad- 
ow of any earthly object into the light of 
heaven, and to walk with a more determined 
step on the earth beneath. This is the man- 
ifestation of a character which has always 
existed, and which has, as it were, been ac- 
cumulating by little and little, till at length 
it has attained its full stature. 

When a man has become his own master, 
it is left to himself to complete his own ed- 
ucation. " He has one Father, God." For 
the formation of his character, thus far, he is 
not in the strictest sense accountable ; that 
is, his character is not as yet so fixed, but 
that it is yielding and pliable. It is left to 
himself to decide, how far it shall remain in 
its present form. This is indeed a period of 
deep responsibility. He has taken the guid- 
ance of a human being, and is not the less 
accountable, that this being is himself. The 
ligament is now cut asunder by which his 
mind was bound to its earthly guardian, and 
he is placed on his own feet, exposed to the 
bleak winds and refreshing breezes, the clouds 



92 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

and the sunshine of this world, fully account- 
able to God and man for his conduct. Let 
him not be made dizzy from a sense of his 
own liberty, nor faint under his own weight; 
but let him remember that the eye of God 
is now fixed full, it might almost be said 
anxiously, upon him. 

It is with the human mind, as with the 
human body. All our race have those limbs 
and features, and that general aspect, from 
which they are denominated men. But, on 
a nearer view, w^e find them divided into 
nations possessed of peculiar appearance and 
habits, and these subdivided into families and 
individuals, in all of which there is some- 
thing peculiarly their own. The human mind 
(speaking in the most general sense) requires 
to be instructed in the same sciences, and 
needs the same general development, and is 
destined to make one common and universal 
effort for its own emancipation. But the 
several nations of the earth also will, at a 
future period, stand forth with a distinctness 
of character which cannot now be conceived 
of. The part which each is to perform in 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 93 

the regeneration of the world, will become 
more and more distinctly marked and uni- 
versally acknowledged ; and every nation will 
be found to possess resources in its own 
moral and intellectual character, and its own 
natural productions, which will render it es- 
sential to the well-being and happiness ,of 
the whole. Every government must find that 
the real good of its own people precisely 
harmonizes with that of others ; and standing 
armies must be converted into willing la- 
borers for the promotion of the same object. 
Then will the nations of the earth resemble 
the well-organized parts of the same body, 
and no longer convert that light which is 
given them for the benefit of their brethren, 
into an instrument by which they are de- 
graded and enslaved. 

But we stop not here. Every individual 
also possesses peculiar powers, which should 
be brought to bear on society in the duties 
best fitted to receive them. The highest 
degree of cultivation of which the mind of 
any one is capable, consists in the most per- 
fect development of that peculiar organiza- 



94 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

tion, which as really exists in infancy as in 
maturer years. The seed which is planted 
is said to possess in miniature, the trunk, 
branches, leaves and fruit of the future tree. 
So it is with the mind; and the most that 
can possibly be done, is to afford facilities 
by. which its development may be effected 
with the same order. In the process of the 
formation of our minds there exists the spirit 
of prophecy; and no advancement can create 
surprise, because we have always been con- 
scious of that from which it is produced. 
We must not seek to make one hair white 
or black. It is in vain for us to attempt to 
add one cubit to our stature. All adventi- 
tious or assumed importance should be cast 
off, as a filthy garment. We should seek an 
employment for the mind, in which all its en- 
ergies may be warmed into existence ; which 
(if I may be allowed the expression) may 
bring every muscle into action. There is 
something which every one can do better 
than any one else ; and it is the tendency, 
and must be the end, of human events, to 
assign to each his true calling. Kings will 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 95 

be hurled from their thrones, and peasants 
exalted to the highest stations, by this irre- 
sistible tendency of mind to its true level. 
These effects may not be fully disclosed in 
the short period of this life ; but even the 
most incredulous must be ultimately con- 
vinced that the truth is no respecter of per- 
sons, by learning the simple fact, that a man 
cannot be other than what he is. Not that 
endless progression in moral goodness and in 
wisdom are not within the reach of any one; 
but that the state will never arrive, when he 
may not look back to the first rudiments, 
the original stamina of his own mind, and 
be almost able to say, I possessed all at the 
time of my birth. The more a person lives 
in singleness of heart, in simplicity, and sin- 
cerity, the more will this be apparent. 

It becomes us, then, to seek and to cherish 
this peculium of our own minds, as the pat- 
rimony which is left us by our Father in 
heaven — as that by which the branch is 
united to the vine — as the forming power 
within us, which gives to our persons that 
by which they are distinguished from others ; 



96 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

and, by a life entirely governed by the com- 
mandments of God, to leave on the duties 
we are called to perform the full impress of 
our real characters. Let a man's ambition 
to be great disappear in a willingness to be 
what he is ; then rftay he fill a high place 
without pride, or a low one without dejec- 
tion. As our desires become more and more 
concentrated to those objects which corre- 
spond to the peculiar organization of our 
minds, we shall have a foretaste of that 
which is coming, in those internal tendencies 
of which we are conscious. As we perform 
with alacrity whatever duty presents itself 
before us, we shall perceive in our own hearts 
a kind of preparation for every external event 
or occurrence of our lives, even the most 
trivial, springing from the all-pervading ten- 
dency of the Providence of God, to present 
the opportunity of being useful wherever there 
is the disposition. 

Living in a country whose peculiar char- 
acteristic is said to be a love of equal liberty, 
let it be written on our hearts, that the end 
of all education is a life of active usefulness. 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 97 

We want no education which shall raise a 
man out of the reach of the understanding, 
or the sympathies of any of his species. We 
are disgusted with that kind of dignity which 
the possessor is himself obliged to guard ; but 
venerate that, which, having its origin in the 
actual character of the man, can receive no 
increase from the countenance of power, and 
suffer no diminution from the approach of 
weakness — that dignity in which the indivi- 
dual appears to live rather in the conscious- 
ness of the light which shines from above, 
than in that of his own shadow beneath. 
There is a spiritual atmosphere about such an 
one, which is at once its own protection and 
the protection of him with whom it is con- 
nected — which, while it is free as air alike to 
the most powerful and the most humble, con- 
veys a tacit warning that too near an approach 
is not perm.itted. We acknowledge the invisi- 
ble chain which binds together all classes of 
society, and would apply to it the electric 
spark of knowledge with the hand of tender- 
ness and caution. We acknowledge the 
healthy union of mental and bodily exercise, 

7 



98 GROWTH OF THE MIND. 

and would rather see all men industrious and 
enlightened, than to see one half of mankind 
slaves to the other, and these slaves to their 
passions. We acknowledge that the natural 
world is one vast mine of wisdom, and for 
this reason it is the scene of the labors of 
man; and that in seeing this wisdom, there 
is philosophy, and in loving it, there is re- 
ligion. Most sensibly do we feel, that as 
the true end of instruction is to prepare a 
man for some particular sphere of usefulness ; 
when he has found this sphere, his education 
has then truly commenced, and the finger of 
God is pointing to the very page of the 
book of his oracles, from which he may draw 
the profoundest wisdom. It was the design 
of Providence that there should be enough 
of science connected with the calling of each 
for the highest and holiest purposes of heaven. 
It is the natural world from which the phi- 
losopher draws his knowledge ; it is the nat- 
ural world in which the slave toils for his 
bread. Alas ! when will they be one ? When 
we are willing to practise what we learn, 
and religion makes our duty our delight. 



GROWTH OF THE MIND. 99 

The mass of mankind must always labor; 
hence it is supposed that they must be al- 
ways ignorant. Thus has the pride of man 
converted that discipline into an occasion of 
darkness and misery, which was intended 
only to give reality to knowledge, and to 
make happiness eternal. Truth is the way 
in which we should act; arid then only is a 
man truly wise when the body performs 
what the mind perceives. In this way, flesh 
and blood are made to partake of the wis- 
dom of the spiritual man ; and the palms of 
our hands will become the book of our life, 
on which is inscribed all the love and all 
the wisdom we possess. It is the light which 
directs a man to his duty ; it is by doing 
his duty that he is enlightened— thus does 
he become identified with his own acts of 
usefulness, and his own vocation is the 
silken cord which directs to his heart the 
knowledge and the blessings of all mankind. 

THE END. 



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